I will put my usual lack of two cents in that the first real tuba I owned, a MW 182 F, what I noted was that the low C actually wanted to center considerably sharper than C, and that I thought a whole lot of extra tubing might make it more playable. However I sold it and it is now in Pittsburg from ...

With only a belated BSEE (age 39) -- I am so way ahead of my stayed-in-music friends in terms of what I was able to achieve financially. I did it partly for financial reasons, not to "get rich," but because I could see I'd have no way to retire, would never bel able to afford a house, etc. It worked ...

I'm still trying to find non-poisonous cat food for my cat. That tends to go the direction of specialty raw. I found some I was willing to try due to the lack of chemicals added, and the food came to $64. They wanted $81 to ship it. Back to sardines and hamburger and raw chicken, and even if the ...

We forget how incredibly naive we were at that age.

A grad student in our brass band has applied for a DMA at Indiana. He doesn't know yet if he has been accepted.
For almost anybody, that is going to be "small fish in a big pond" though.

Thank you all for your comments and input. Sometimes things are just not available any more…I will stick to my more modern (ca 1980-ies) Alexander 35 Mouthpiece which I use with an adapter on my Alex 164.

So I just need to buy an Alexander 163 tuba to find a buddy for my Alexander 33 Mouthpiece ...

I heard about this last night at brass band from our solo cornet -- who does a lot of freeway phil stuff, and was planning to get back on their sub list. She said 1M in debt and nothing coming in.
On conspiracy theories -- TSO's 2nd trumpet was hired, her not-yet-husband moved here from Virginia to ...

Mary Ann, you might find something you like in the Josef Klier lineup, they offer a huge amount of size and cup depth options.

I have a JK 8C and 8E. The Wick 5 works better for me on the NStar, and all those, although they fit my face, are too small for the Hagen to sound like a contrabass.
I ...

It was interesting thinking in cello and F tuba at the same time and looking for the similarities in valve combinations and fingerboard positions. In other words, I was using all manner of alternate fingerings.

Still trying to like the PT-64S, it really makes a nice tone, but it sure feels TINY ...

I am messing with the alto clarinet waiting for the correct ligature and the Legere 2.5 to get here -- had to ask my clarinet friend how to do one thing (I hate having to ask) and now have a reasonable rendition of the alto sax solo in Bolero, complete with vibrato. I'm getting a kick out of this ...

Which to me says something...It's a smaller cup diameter - 32mm - than his other mouthpieces. I think it was the smallest diameter Mike Finn produced when he was making it.


32 is too wide. What I'm comfortable on and have several makers' versions of is 30-31mm. It actually amazes me the ...

Thanks. I'm just a pretty good amateur, nowhere near a pro, degree was in violin.
I like the MFinn H cups but they are just too much combo of width/volume for my size and air supply.
I do get confused at how with the Hagen in particular, I have such wild differences in how playable I find it with ...

Raw brass is toxic, and metals are difficult to remove from your system. The younger people do not realize that the macho approach has results later in life.

Back and forth and back and forth with mouthpieces on the Hagen. I have spent a LOT of time with the Wick 4, and still hit or miss on playing notes, much change in physical lip position and head angle to play the different ranges. I don't have to do that on the NStar. Tried the Mike Finn 4 with the ...

If someone does not want to expose themself to raw brass on the mouthpiece, you can put nail polish on the rim. Then you can remove it with nail polish remover, but you might be better off health-wise to leave it on.

I remember watching a video of Bernstein with whatever orchestra it was, playing without his doing anything at all other than looking at the section whose time it was to enter, with a smile on his face and raising his eyebrows.

Even decent amateur groups can easily play marches without a conductor ...

Concert band concert. Some went amazingly better than anticipated -- such as most of Carmina Burana. The movement that is in multiple x/8 time signatures where the tubas SHOULD sound metronomic, was left out because the woodwinds could not keep a steady beat going with their parts, and it was ...

I would just love to go to one of those. I'm in better shape than I was last year but have the same food problems -- cannot eat standard restaurant food. I'd have to take food WITH me, or have transport to a grocery that had what I eat (not all do) -- and it would probably be more difficult overall ...

Going to an Ivy league school opens up employment at some places that are impressed with the fact that the person went to that school.
In my line of work, the school I went to (NMSU) was impressive for the graduates whose concentration was electrical power. Nobody but the utilities care about that ...

Relate this to classical music any way you want, but if you take what has been taught in the fifth grade and keep going back decade by decade, you'll find most college graduates cannot pass fifth grade if you go back far enough in time.